The smell of 65 dead quails would offend almost anyone, but for Laurin Coggins of the Cascades Raptor Center, a nonprofit nature center and wildlife hospital, it is hardly an inconvenience: It’s just the next meal on the menu. She nonchalantly slits the bellies of the female quails, reaches in with bare hands, and removes their eggs.
“The eggs are too high in cholesterol, plus some of the birds flat out refuse to eat them,” she said.
She then lays the limp birds into trays and delicately garnishes them with an algae-based vitamin mixture for the afternoon volunteers to deliver to the raptors. It is done with the care and efficiency of a five-star restaurant, but Coggins admits she would rather prepare rat.
Coggins studied art at Savannah College of Art and Design, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts in Portland. Before she earned one of two full-time positions at the raptor center, she supported herself through her textile art. When she started feeling too self-involved, she volunteered.
“I just needed to do something for somebody else,” she said.
Or something else, as it turned out.
“I fell madly in love with him,” she said. Coggins is referring to Leathe, a male turkey vulture. These birds choose their mates and usually stay together for life.
Leathe is one of 55 permanent bird residents adopted by the center. Most of the birds are handicapped, both physically and mentally, by
interactions with humans and will never be able to return to the wild. Leathe is an imprinted bird, or a bird that prefers the company of humans to his own species.
Coggins comments on individual birds’ preferences: Edgar the crow likes grapes, particularly organic red seedless ones; Aeolus, a bald eagle, would never be found indulging himself in such extravagances, despite his apparent Greek affiliation. As Coggins approaches Zachariah-the-Raven’s cage with an egg, he rolls his eyes and cackles, uninterested in Coggins but intrigued by the egg.
The bird’s unique personalities attract volunteers and funding. Visitors often financially “adopt” birds. Due to regulations, adopters lacking proper certification cannot handle the raptors. Coggins’ mother, who recently adopted Leathe, still loves to watch the bird interact with her daughter.
On Tuesday, Leathe moved in with Kali, the center’s larger, more aggressive female turkey vulture. Coggins hopes separating the birds with mesh wire will allow the birds to grow accustomed to each other.
“We really need them to learn to deal with each other,” she said.
It is an issue of space. The center cannot afford to have two birds of the same species living in separate cages.
“We always have new birds coming in,” she said.
The center has grown steadily since its establishment in 1987. Initially, the organization was housed in a two-bedroom duplex with a small back yard filled with cages. It moved to the three-and-a-half-acre wooded lot off of Fox Hollow Road 11 years ago and now has plans to relocate to a 20-acre site on Mount Baldy off of Dillard Road in Eugene.
Long-term supporters made the land available to the center for substantially below market value. The gift is typical of the support the CRC receives. Of the $85,000 average yearly budget, 53 percent comes from donations and 27 percent comes from grants.
Applying for grants is a task Coggins invests much time and interest in. In spring 2004, the Kinsman Foundation awarded a grant to the CRC to fund Coggins’ salary for a year, plus benefits.
“We always could use more funding and more help. It’s a lot of work,” she said.
Grant writing is just one of the many hats she wears as an employee of a nonprofit organization.
In addition to b
eing the assistant director, Coggins is the bird handling trainer, the volunteer coordinator and the event coordinator. She also serves as a guide to educate center visitors.
“I think you could take any one of the hats I wear and make it a full-time job,” she said.
The center advocates education as a means of conservation. Coggins and the 65 volunteers frequently host groups ranging from 40 students to a single interested citizen.
“Education is the most important thing we do,” she said.
This is an opinion that may not be shared by the roughly 1,275 birds the center has rehabilitated and released since its incorporation. That means 50 to 60 percent of the birds brought in for care are released.
“That’s a number we are proud of,” Coggins said.
Humans cause most of the injuries Coggins sees.
“The number one survival skill for birds is to learn a fear of humans,” Coggins said.
Barbed wire, cars, window strikes, pesticides and hunting are just a few reasons for birds to fear humans.
Possibly the same reasons for birds to fear humans are the reasons Coggins gets to explore her passion in such depth. As she said, nothing in the wild dies of old age.

Kyle Dickman is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald